Product Description

No one can understand the complete tragedy of the American experience in Vietnam without reading this book. Nothing so underscores the ambivalence and confusion of the American commitment as does the composition of our fighting forces. The rich and the powerful may have supported the war initially, but they contributed little of themselves. That responsibility fell to the poor and the working class of America.

Senator George McGovern

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #309310 in Books
• Published on: 1993-02-26
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 377 pages

From Library Journal
In his introduction, Appy (history, MIT) states, "Vietnam is not... merely a memory; it is a fundamental part of our history and, therefore, a fundamental part of what we are." What follows is an in-depth look at the "part of what we are" that is literally the living legacy of the war--the Vietnam veteran. The author has compellingly combined his experiences from interviews, participation in weekly veterans' "rap" groups, and examination of existing Vietnam-era literature to present two narratives. First, he examines the circumstances that created a fighting force in Vietnam made up predominantly of working-class young men. He then vividly presents readers with what participants of the war endured by synthesizing accounts of veterans with illustrative excerpts from novels, nonfiction works, and films concerning the war. Appy's achievement is conveying to readers insight into the war experience of Vietnam veterans. Highly recommended for all libraries.
- Robert Favini, Bentley Coll. Lib., Waltham, Mass.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
No one can understand the complete tragedy of the American experience in Vietnam without reading this book.

Senator George McGovern

Definitive and engrossing.

Commonweal

Working-Class War is gripping, thorough, and compelling.

Walter H. Capps, author of The Unfinished War: Vietnam and the American Conscience

There really is no other study that accomplishes what Appy has done.

Lloyd C. Gardner, author of Approaching Vietnam: From World War II Through Dienbienphu, 1941-1954

Customer Reviews

Great stuff
Excellent look at the Vietnam War from the eyes of them what really got screwed over. Guess who they were. C'mon. Yup. The working class.

Insight on the first review by brazos49
Just a little info on the National Council of Churches. They are a communist appeasing left leaning organization. Don't let their name fool you. This is the organization that was used as a front by the Congressional Black Caucus and NAACP when they put a white female representative out in the public eye to recommend that Elian Gonzalez, who's escape was embarrasing the Castro Regime, be sent back to Cuba.

So when they "estimate" that 49,000 suicides occurred you can bet it has every intention of making this country look bad. The fact that Mr. Appy can't do subtraction is a whole other issue.

Author credibility issues turned me off; book not all bad
This book turned me off early when, in the Introduction, the author states: "No one knows how many veterans have committed suicide as a result of theeir wartime experiences, but most specialists who have worked closely with veterans believe the number of suicides far exceeds the number of men who died in the war itself." That seemed wrong to me, so I followed his supporting footnote which stated "As early as 1971 the National Council of Churches estimated that 49,000 veterans had died from various causes after returning home." Since 49,000 is less than the more than 58,000 who died in the war, and since there's no indication that a majority of the 49,000 committed suicide, I thought the author had already lost his credibility. I also had to wonder about his academic advisors who were supposed to be overlooking this doctoral thesis at Harvard. Based on this, I decided not to read the book line for line, but to simply skim it to find areas of interest.

And, I did find some. The chapters in the book that dealt with direct military experiences in basic training and in the war were pretty good. They are worth reading. But, once you drift into the author's interpretations, I'd recommend you skip or read with skepticism. I think the author has a clearly antiwar, liberal viewpoint and is willing to embellish to help express it.